This is truly one of the strangest GPFs – there’s no Evgenia, Yuzu or Papadakis/Cizeron. All in all, it has been an interesting post-Olympic season. Hopefully all goes well to Evgenia, who’s trying to re-learn all that she’s ever known, Yuzu for a speedy recovery, and well, I think Papadakis/Cizeron need no encouragement or help considering their performance at the Internationaux de France was quite dominant (though the marks needed a little more growing room for the rest of the season). Either way, the predictions will be quite tough this time around since this GPF will help determine how the dust will settle over the course of this new Olympic cycle.

The week has been long and insanely busy, once again. The competition may have already started already so I apologize. Names on page, let’s go.

Men

Without Yuzuru, the competition will likely be between Shoma Uno and Nathan Chen for gold. The former was a little shaky in his last GP assignment though home ice may be kind. Chen is going into the competition with full confidence from his win at Skate America. Either way, I think the ball is in Shoma’s court but I think he will fumble a bit here.

The rest of the field don’t quite have the quads, save for Mikhail Kolyada, who seems to have finally found his rhythm. Barring a total meltdown, he should be able to secure the bronze.

Predictions:

Gold: Nathan Chen
Silver: Shoma Uno
Bronze: Mikhail Kolyada

Ladies

Strange how neither singles World Champion is at this competition. With the vacuum left by Evgenia Medvedeva, I think that Alina Zagitova can fill it with her double tano jumps and back-ended programs. There are other skaters who are well rounded and have more enjoyable programs to watch but you can’t deny that 1) the back-ended programs rack up points and 2) the judges have never marked PCS correctly to penalize skaters with incoherent or check-box like programs.

Some challengers: Kaetlyn Osmond if she can get herself together and Carolina Kostner, who skates with a polish and maturity well beyond the rest of the field. Maria Sotskova should also be in contention for a medal. This will be a tough call. I think Osmond can win this should she skate clean but I’m not sure if I’m ready to put my faith in her yet.

Predictions:

Gold: Alina Zagitova
Silver: Maria Sotskova
Bronze: Kaetlyn Osmond

Pairs

What a great roster. Pairs has gone from my least favourite disciplines to my favourite. Wenjing Sui & Cong Han look strong this season, and one of their biggest rivals, Meagan Duhamel & Eric Radford faltered at Skate America last week. The judges don’t seem to like their style this season as much as the previous seasons so whatever their TES, Sui & Han will likely have the higher PCS throughout the competition. Should the Chinese pair skate clean, they will be hard to beat at any competition this season.

Bronze will be a tough call between Evgenia Tarasova & Vladimir Morozov with their wtf LP and Aliona Savchenko & Bruno Massot, with probably my favourite LP of the season. So many tough calls.

I said it at the beginning of the season and even if I’m not fully confident of my other predictions, I am fairly certain that Gabriella Papadakis & Guillaume Cizeron will be Olympic Champions in Pyeongchang. Tessa Virtue & Scott Moir failed to improve on their scores on non-home ice, and are prone to small but costly mistakes. The French have been steadily improving and are super consistent – their inexperience jitters are gone and they’re in it to win it. Furthermore, both P&C’s programs this season are more coherent than that of their rivals. I’m not sure if V&M can win that second title they were looking for.

As for bronze, the leading American team will fill that spot and for now, it’s still the Shibsibs. If any of the other American teams want that top spot at Nationals this season, now is the time to make a case for themselves.

I swore that I would be on top of things for the GPF so I am starting early this week. The only downside to this is that if there’s last minute withdrawals, I’ll have to change things up.

In any case, the GPF is looking to be an exciting competition where skaters will want to line themselves nicely going into Worlds. The stakes are higher this season because their standings at Worlds determine a) how many skaters their country gets to send to the Olympics and b) their reputation and momentum going into the Olympic season. The GPF will determine the course of a few things as we head into the stretch of the season devoted to Nationals, 4CC and Euros.

Alright! It’s time for part II of the Grand Prix Final debrief with the pairs and ice dance competition! I apologize for the lateness but better late than never? These posts remind me why I usually do a “State of the Union” post after the GPF but it seems this season, my tardiness has some benefits. I believe some of the results at Nationals may be a little more telling than what transpired at the GPF so… I will do a 4CC predictions post but all my thoughts on the outcomes of Euros and 4CC and some of the national competitions will be summed up in a State of the Union post.

As for Worlds… well, I have a bit of a surprise which I think I will reveal a little later in the season. But first, GPF debrief! Let’s go!

After watching Obama’s interesting speech yesterday, I decided to write this post as my GPF recap post while also commenting on how I feel the season will go now that we’ve reached the mid-way point. The GPF was quite a telling competition and already, certain pieces are starting to fall into place as the Olympic cycle is slowly picking up.

Here are my thoughts on the GPF and what the competition is like as we go into the second half of the figure skating season. More

So I admit I’m a bit confused over the 3 entry thing this year for the Grand Prix series and as a result, I’m making predictions without looking at the points that everyone’s gotten so far. Most of them are pretty obvious by now, though.

Men

Daisuke Takahashi

Patrick Chan

Michal Brezina

Song Nan

Javier Fernandez

Jeremy Abbott

Ladies

Elizaveta Tukatmysheva

Carolina Kostner

Alissa Czisny

Mao Asada

Akiko Suzuki

Adelina Sotnikova

Pairs

Aliona Savchenko & Robin Szolkowy

Yuko Kavaguti & Alexander Smirnov

Tatiana Volosozhar & Maxim Trankov

The Zhangs

Kirsten Moore-Towers & Dylan Moscovitch

Narumi Takahashi & Mervin Tran

Ice Dance

Tessa Virtue & Scott Moir

Meryl Davis & Charlie White

The Shibutanis

Nathalie Pechalat & Fabian Bourzat

Ekaterina Bobrova & Dmitri Sloviev

Kaitlyn Weaver & Andrew Poje

I’m sort of half-asleep while writing this so what do you think?

~The Rinkside Cafe

P.S. Cup of Russia predictions will be posted later on this week. Event coverage will be limited until the new year. I apologize. Though my schedule may allow me to make an exception for the GPF.